Sergeant Walter James Bloomfield

Rod Martin

We do not really know where thirty-three year-old Walter Bloomfield worked when

he joined up at Broadmeadows on 22 December 1914. He listed his occupation as

‘station manager’, so we can assume that he was located somewhere in rural Victoria.

As a result, we can also assume that he was used to handling horses. Indeed, he

fought in the Boer War (1899-1902) as a member of 2 Commonwealth Contingent,

which was formed after Federation in 1901. The Australian War Memorial records

that Australians who went to South Africa served mostly in mounted units. Walter

was attached to 2 Battalion Australian Commonwealth Horse and was in South Africa

in 1902.

(AWM 17313.001)

Given this background, it is no surprise that Walter enlisted in the Light Horse in

December 1914. He was assigned to 7 Reinforcements of 8 Light Horse (LH)

Regiment and completed much of his training at the new army base at Seymour.

Indeed, he was at Broadmeadows and then Seymour for nine months before leaving

Australia. It is difficult to discover the full reasons why there was such a delay in

sending Walter and the other reinforcements to Egypt. We do know that, as a result

of the initial enlistments in 1914, there was a surplus of young men joining the Light

Horse. In fact, such were the numbers that 2 LH Brigade was formed as early as 3

September, and 3 LH Brigade (of which 8 LHR was part) shortly afterwards. By mid-

1915, men from all three brigades (a total of 8 000 personnel) were at Gallipoli,

fighting as ground troops because the terrain was too rugged for mounted operations.

Therefore, it may be the case that some groups of reinforcements were kept in

Australia at less cost until attrition required more men at the front. In early August

1915, 8 LHR was involved in the disastrous attack at the Nek and lost 234 casualties,

154 of them fatal – including their commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander White

of Brighton. 7 Reinforcements sailed on the twenty-third of the following month

on A57 HMAT Malakuta.

(alh-research.tripod.com)

By 20 November, Walter was in Heliopolis, north-east of Cairo in Egypt. Given that

the LH brigades were still at Gallipoli at that time, he and his comrades were assigned

to a composite LH regiment. On the twenty-seventh, probably because of his age and

experience, Walter was appointed a temporary sergeant. Once the survivors returned

from Gallipoli, he became a member of the reconstituted 8 LHR on 18 January 1916

and was promoted to corporal. The situation in Egypt was fluid at this time. Now

that the Gallipoli campaign was over, the Turkish forces there were free to join their

compatriots in the Sinai Desert and march on the Suez Canal. In early 1915, soon

after entering the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Turkey had

ordered its forces in Palestine (the area had been occupied by Turkey since 1299) to

advance into the Sinai Peninsula and move on the important transport route. They

reached as far as the east bank of the waterway in February 1915 and attempted to

cross it. Three boatloads of Turkish troops did actually reach the other side, but were

quickly repulsed. The cost to the Turks was high: 2 000 killed or wounded and 700

captured. The British forces lost twenty-nine killed and 130 wounded.

After the failure at Gallipoli, a plan was formed by the Allies: strike east of the canal,

moving through Sinai and north into Palestine, mopping up the Turkish forces and

seizing their headquarters in Damascus. ‘By doing this,’ comments Barry Stone, ‘the

whole wretched [Turkish] empire, instead of being smashed in the head, might just be

cut off at its ankles.’

This was where the Australian Light Horse came in. While it was decided that some

of the units would be sent to the Western Front in France and Belgium (and many of

the Light Horsemen volunteered for this move), others became the Anzac Mounted

Division, comprising three LH brigades and the New Zealand Brigade, under the

command of Major-General ‘Harry’ Chauvel. They joined the British in the so-called

Mediterranean (or Egyptian) Expeditionary Force, commanded by British

Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Murray. The British orders to Murray

were to hold the defensive line east of the canal. However, according to the official

war history, written by Henry Gullett, the orders were imprecise and Murray

. . . was convinced that . . . the only plan which could make the [Nile] Delta

absolutely safe was to advance a force across Sinai to the plains of southern

Palestine . . . [W]ithin a few weeks of his arrival [he] had resolved to advance

beyond his entrenched line and deny the Peninsula to the enemy.

Taking advantage of a desperate order from British minister of war Lord Kitchener in

April after the disastrous defeat of an 8 000-strong British-Indian force by the Turks

at Kut (in modern-day Iraq) saying that ‘ . . . any success you can achieve during the

next few days will be most valuable’, Murray seized the opportunity and ordered his

forces forward into Sinai.

But that did not happen until April 1916. What was Walter doing in the meantime?

8 LHR remained in Heliopolis through December and January. Many of the men took

the opportunity to visit the Pyramids, and Walter was probably no exception.

Members of 8 LHR on the top of a pyramid, December 1915. Their well-worn uniforms

and the fact that most of them are wearing emu feathers in their hats may indicate that

they are Gallipoli veterans. (AWM H03071)

The regiment was still in Heliopolis in February, but groups of men had been

designated to move to Serapeum, on the Suez Canal, to take up defensive positions

there. Walter was among these groups, and he was listed as being at Serapeum by the

twenty-sixth of the month.

Troops being ferried across the Suez Canal at Serapeum (AWM J02663)

Walter’s younger brother Charles, a member of 6 Infantry Battalion, was also at

Serapeum during February, so it may well be the case that the two met up there at that

time. If so, it would be the last time that they would see each other. Shortly

thereafter, Walter would be dead. Charles would follow him only three months later,

after surviving the Battle of Pozières in France.

This was the beginning of a prolonged stay in the desert for the Light Horse. Peter

Stanley comments that no other Australians saw such unremitting service, in this or

any other war. By 21 March, some of the troops were being sent out on patrol

towards the east, and others moved to outpost duties at the front, east of the canal. On

4 April, the regiment moved to a short distance to the railhead at Ferry Post, near

Ismailia. The men stayed at that location until the end of July, the various squadrons

rotating to and from the defensive positions at the front line. On the last two days of

that month, the troopers were finally ordered forward and moved to the area near Aras

and Simara, in the northern part of the Sinai. The dryness and lack of resources in the

region are evidenced by the fact that B squadron had to go out into the desert and dig

wells after they had arrived. As Paul Daley puts it, ‘Water was the key to success in

the Sinai.’

Things had been happening in the Sinai and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) while

Walter and his comrades were at Ferry Post. In late April, the Turks had claimed Kut

after a siege lasting almost five months. Roland Perry tells us that, after that victory,

. . . the Turks then began their push towards the Suez Canal via the northern

route over Sinai closest to the Mediterranean. They . . . defeated the under-

prepared and under-resourced British 5th Mounted (Yeomanry) Brigade at the

posts of Katia and Oghratina 40 kilometres east of the canal into the Sinai,

where they were massacred.

After being captured, 250 of the British survivors were slain by Bedouin Arabs, who

had been left to guard them overnight. When 2 LH Brigade arrived to provide support,

they discovered many bodies. As Perry puts it, ‘Corpses in their hundreds were left

where they had been slain by the Arabs . . .’

(Bean: Official history)

The slaughter at Katia/Oghratina had a profound effect on the Australians. As Perry

comments:

The Australian Light Horse, who came across the results of the butchery were

sickened and sobered by what they saw. No matter how long this war in the

desert continued they would never trust the Bedouins again, regardless of

directives from the British command about how to deal with local Arabs . . .

all Arabs would be treated with suspicion.

8 LHR moved on to the main town in the area, Romani. However, the Turks and the

Bedouins had withdrawn further east, and the settlement was taken without

opposition. Nevertheless, the Turks would be back. Romani was important as the

centre of an extensive system of oases.

On 4 August, 8 LHR, along with the rest of 3 LH Brigade, moved east to the oasis of

Dueidar, about twenty-one kilometres south-west of Katia. It was flanking the other

LH units that had gone before it, assisting in holding watering holes captured from the

enemy.

A Light Horseman with his mount (www.bing.com)

As the Australian War Memorial notes, these conflicts were part of the encompassing

Battle of Romani, fought between 3 and 5 August 1916. The battle finally put a stop

to the Turkish threat to the Suez Canal and marked the beginning of the British

forces’ drive out of Egypt and into Palestine. The memorial’s summary also notes

that, after Turkish resistance finally collapsed on 5 August, ‘large numbers of

prisoners were taken. At 6.30 am fresh troops of the 3rd Light Brigade were turned

loose in pursuit of the retreating Turks [my emphasis]. 8 LHR’s involvement in this

pursuit came on 7 August, when it pushed forward, taking Hod el Sagia and Hod el

Bada. However, it was then held up for the remainder of the day by deeply

entrenched Turks and eventually retreated to a nearby oasis to deny the enemy the use

of its water. 9 LHR then took over and consolidated the position.

When the Turks finally abandoned Katia on 6 August (3 LH Brigade having a big

victory south of that settlement on the fifth, when a strongpoint was rushed at 1.00

pm, resulting in the capture of 425 enemy and seven machine guns), the threat to

Romani was over. However, the cost to the Anzac Mounted Division was

considerable: 900 (including 202 killed) of the 1 130 allied casualties. The Turks lost

an estimated 9 000: 1 250 dead were buried by the victors.

Lambert, George: Battle of Romani, 4 August 1916

(ART09556 Copyright © Australian War Memorial)

‘A’ Squadron 8LHR camped near Romani, August 1916 (AWM H13693)

Kathrine Bell writes that, while the Turks had been pushed

back,

. . . the defeat was not as final as the Australians would have liked.

It dispersed the enemy but left him able to regroup and attack again, which he

did at Katia and Bir el Abd. Because they could not get to the much needed

water, the Light Horse were forced to return to Romani under the orders of . . .

Chauvel who was in command. But the Turks were in retreat and heading

towards El Arish, close to the Palestine border.

The Light Horse now set out in pursuit of the Turks. 8 LHR occupied Hamisah on the

sixth and discovered one wounded Turk there. Late in the afternoon it moved on,

heading towards Hod el Sagia. When it arrived there the next day, it discovered that

the Turks were deeply dug in and rifle, machine gun and artillery fire ensued. Late in

the evening, the regiment was relieved by 9 LHR. 8 LHR had suffered three dead and

six wounded in the exchange.

Despite Bell’s comment above about the Turks retreating towards El Arish, let us not

think that they simply abandoned their forward posts and left them to the Allies.

Progress during August was slow and costly because of the opposition put up by the

enemy. At Hod el Bada on the ninth, fierce resistance in the form of rifle and

machine gun fire, plus shrapnel shells, was presented and 8 LHR suffered substantial

casualties. The Turks even staged a counter-attack late in the day. However, as the 8

LHR commander reported,

. . . a sharp attack was made by the enemy, advancing in main against

our left centre. They were apparently short of ammunition and too much

exhausted to advance up the steep slope to our position and the attack died

away as darkness came.

By the end of the day, eight men had been killed and thirty-six wounded. Five of the

latter group subsequently died of their wounds.

Sadly, Walter was one of the eight men killed on 9 August. Along with the other

fatalities, he was buried in the sand at Hod Hassamiya and the regiment moved on,

heading for El Arish. From there, the Light Horse would assist in pushing the Turks

out of the Sinai into Palestine. Eventually, they would reach Jerusalem and then the

Turkish headquarters in the Middle East, Damascus.

After the war, the Imperial War Graves Commission exhumed the bodies and re-

interred them in the Jerusalem War Memorial Cemetery. In 1917, Walter’s father

wrote to the army headquarters in Melbourne, complaining that some items belonging

to his son had not been returned to the family. He listed socks, a watch, a spirit flask,

glasses, shaving and smokers’ outfits, a wallet, a diary and money belt. The

commander of 8 LHR eventually responded to a query about this that, because of the

speed with which the horsemen were moving forward, they had to leave the dead

men’s items behind at Romani and trust that they would be returned to Serapeum.

Perhaps the Bedouins stole them.

(www.bing.com)

Light Horse Memorial, Beersheba (en.wikipedia.org)

Sources

Australian War Memorial

Bean, C.E.W: Official history of Australia in the war of 1914-1918,

volume VII – The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and

Palestine 1914-1918, Sydney, Angus and Robertson,

eleventh edition,1941 (chapter VII, written by Henry Gullett)

Bell, Kathrine: the Australian Light Horse, Sydney, Murray David Publishing, 2009

Daley, Paul: Beersheba: a journey though Australia’s forgotten war,

Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2009

Lenore Frost

http://www.alh-research.tripod.com

National Archives of Australia

Perry, Roland: The Australian Light Horse, Sydney, Hachette Australia,

2009 Stanley, Peter: Bad characters, Sydney, Murdoch Books Australia, 2010

Stone, Barry: The desert Anzacs, Richmond, Hardie Grant, 2014